The polar retrospective – A look back for a look ahead
The Polar Retrospective looks at events of the past week that are related to the Arctic and Antarctic and focuses on one or more aspects. Today’s retrospective, however, focuses on us for once, as we take a look back to give you a glimpse ahead what we plan for you in the near future.
Summer is just around the corner and people are heading off on well-deserved summer vacations either at home, in their own country or somewhere abroad. Simply seeing and experiencing something different for a change and then returning back to everyday life feeling invigorated and full of energy. And we at Polar Journal AG are also taking these special weeks into account: this article today, which normally deals with one or more polar-related events of the past week, takes a look back a little further and then looks ahead, focusing on us and our platform for once.
Looking back
For five years now, we have been providing a wealth of information about the Arctic and Antarctic on our website and social media channels. More than 6,400 news articles, blog posts, interviews and reports in German, English and French have been published. They are read by up to 50,000 people worldwide every month, still growing even after five years. But what makes it even more remarkable is that our readership is no longer limited to a few polar enthusiasts from the German-speaking world, but now includes people from all fields, whether they be scientists, economists, the general public or politicians from around the world. For us as a team, it is a great honor and shows that our work is being increasingly recognized and appreciated by the global polar community.
This recognition is based on the fact that the platform is the only one to cover both polar regions. However, further development of the content and topics of the articles and contributions is also responsible for the increase and appreciation by the diverse polar community. While it was initially mainly news from a wide range of local and regional news platforms and published research papers that we processed and shared, we now provide our own topics, which are picked up occasionally by a wide range of news platforms and media. In addition, the number of guest articles on our website has increased steadily, and the number of enquiries from experts who consider us an an important and influential platform and thus would like to participate is continuously growing.
This change is also very much linked to the further development of the team. The team of the three original authors Heiner, Kubny, Christian Hug and Michael Wenger has changed and grown to five members. It also benefits from the journalistic professionalism of Camille Lin and Ole Ellekrog and has grown up as a result.
But Polar Journal AG is more than just an information platform with journalistic content. Due to the many years of experience of the individual team members, we can draw on a wealth of expertise and an extensive network of other experts. As a result, we are also able to offer services for promotions, information acquisition and distribution, as well as project consulting. Once again, we are drawing on the extensive experience of our latest team member, Beàta Szablics, who manages our most recent platform, Polar Jobs.
Looking ahead
At the same time, summer in polar regions is a time for change, both in terms of content and appearance. And we will be following the same principle in the coming weeks, from July 8 to August 12 to be precise.
More specifically, we will be changing our articles into reports over the next few weeks. These will look at topics from a number of different angles and, where appropriate, allow more experts to express their views. This means that the articles will be longer to read. However, to ensure that you still have enough time for your own summer activities, we will generally only publish one article per day. Exceptions will be made for important events or developments of sudden interest, which we will cover in articles. To ensure that our readers are still kept up to date, other news will be listed in our “News around the Polar World” section. We will also be stepping up our activities on social media channels during this period and sharing exciting articles and posts from other sources there.
At the same time, we are also using the time to redesign our face, i.e. the website, and add more functions and sections – growth and change. The aim is to offer visitors an even more comprehensive experience and more information content. At the same time, we want to give our existing and future partners an even more attractive platform for our services.
However, we don’t want to give too much away at the moment and want to surprise readers with the new features and sections in mid-August. We are convinced that the innovations will be well received and will generate even greater interest in those regions of the world that continue to fascinate and inspire us at Polar Journal AG well beyond the next five years.
Dr. Michael Wenger, Polar Journal AG
